The creepiest, nerdiest actor in all of filmdom is coming to Olympia as featured artist at the 32nd annual Olympia Film Festival. We're talking Crispin Glover, a.k.a, George McFly in Back to the Future and Layne in River's Edge.
"We are delighted to be presenting both of (Glover's) completed films, two live performances, book signings and meet and greets, and a sneak peek of his forthcoming third film over two days of the festival," said Olympia Film Society marketing coordinator Hannah Eklund. Glover will be there Friday, opening night and again Tuesday, Nov. 15. His films Crispin Hellion Glover's Big Slide Show parts one and two will be followed by his in-person "Everything is Fine" Q&A and book signing.
Glover is "known for his ability to make any role uniquely his own. Glover's self-produced films are his passion and a big ol' middle finger to the Hollywood machine. His live show has been called hypnotic, mesmerizing and unusually intimate for a movie star, Eklund said.
Glover said, "I see a great untruth being perpetrated in corporately funded filmmaking wherein the audience believes they are getting one moral but are in fact fed propaganda that serves corporate interests."
More than 50 films with 10 Northwest premieres will be shown during the nine-day festival. Here are a few select films and events.
Saturday starts off with "Kid's Club Shorts Program 1: The Best of the NYCIFF Kids Animation," followed by Slackjaw, a drama about two friends who become human guinea pigs at a local medical testing facility and Dan Savage's Hump! - a roundup of sexy films for gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and every orientation under the rainbow, for ages 18 and older.
Sunday, Nov. 8 is the kid's French animation Zarafa, about a little boy and a giraffe on a worldwide adventure. Also Sunday, the Rachael Cory Foundation presents The Wanted 18, a documentary about Palestinian cows on the lam from the Israeli army. Next is An American Hippie in Israel, a comedy-drama about a Vietnam vet who's fed up and wants to create a utopia in Israel where you don't have to wear clothes or follow rules.
Monday the 9th is Mick Jagger's Performance, which polarized 1970's film critics with its frank sexuality.
Tuesday brings us In Transit, a Northwest premiere documentary following passengers on a three-day trip from Chicago to Seattle with in-depth looks into their lives. This one won "Best Documentary" at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Wednesday the 11th it's The Babushkas of Chernobyl, a documentary about a defiant community of women who scratch out an existence on some of the most toxic land in the world.
The Kung Fu Double Feature returns on Thursday, Nov. 12 with two exciting kung fu films.
Friday the 13th, it's the locally-made horror epic Valley of the Sasquatch, by John Portanova. A father and son move into a cabin in the deep, dark forest of our beloved Northwest, where they are stalked by a family of angry Sasquatch. It's a horror film with edge-of-your seat drama and an in-depth look into the intricacies of family dynamics (both human and Sasquatch).
Saturday is "Locals Only!" The best work by South Sound filmmakers. The line-up of shorts includes Field of Dreams - A Nisqually Spring Break 2015 Youth Film Camp project; Pearl by Amy Sedgwick; Sublimia by Micaela Huntley-Fryer; Across the Pond by Paris Dylan; Tarotopia, an animated, musically driven narrative by Andrew Ebright; Crossroads by Misty Berlin; and Snaps: The Musical by Jackson Rosenfield, a story set to music and filmed in Olympia.
Starting at midnight Saturday it's "All Freakin' Night," a lineup of spine-tingling and funny horror films consisting of The Beyond, The Winged Serpent, Shock Waves, Who Can Kill a Child? and winding up with the cult classic, Re-animator.
Winding up the festival is Try This At Home, the documentary about the Yo-Yo-A-Go-Go music festival followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers and many of the musicians.
32nd annual Olympia Film Society, Nov. 6-15, Capitol Theater, 416 Washington St. SE, tickets at olympiafilmfestival.org or at the box office.